Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to medical devices having components to treat tissue with light energy. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to open or endoscopic surgical forceps that incorporate optics to create conditions of frustrated total internal reflection to facilitate energy-efficient sealing and cutting of tissue using light energy.
Description of Related Art
In many surgical procedures, body vessels, e.g., blood vessels, ducts, adhesions, fallopian tubes, or the like are sealed to defunctionalize or close the vessels. Traditionally, staples, clips or sutures have been used to close a body vessel. However, these traditional procedures often leave foreign body material inside a patient. In an effort to reduce foreign body material left within the patient and to more effectively seal the body vessel, energy techniques that seal by heating tissue have been employed.
Endoscopic or open forceps are particularly useful for sealing since forceps utilize mechanical action to constrict, grasp, dissect and/or clamp tissue. Current vessel sealing procedures utilize radio frequency treatment to heat and desiccate tissue causing closure and sealing of vessels or tissue.